[Bridge: Childish Gambino & Young Thug]
We just wanna party
Party just for you
We just want the money
Money just for you
I know you wanna party
Party just for me
Girl, you got me dancin’ (yeah, girl, you got me dancin’)
Dance and shake the frame
We just wanna party (yeah)
Party just for you (yeah)
We just want the money (yeah)
Money just for you (you)
I know you wanna party (yeah)
Party just for me (yeah)
Girl, you got me dancin’ (yeah, girl, you got me dancin’)
Dance and shake the frame (you)

[Chorus: Childish Gambino]
This is America
Don’t catch you slippin’ up
Don’t catch you slippin’ up
Look what I’m whippin’ up
This is America (woo)
Don’t catch you slippin’ up
Don’t catch you slippin’ up
Look what I’m whippin’ up

[Outro: Young Thug]
You just a Black man in this world
You just a barcode, ayy
You just a Black man in this world
Drivin’ expensive foreigns, ayy
You just a big dawg, yeah
I kenneled him in the backyard
No probably ain’t life to a dog
For a big dog

An Expert's Take on the Symbolism in Childish Gambino’s Viral ‘This Is America’ Video, By MAHITA GAJANAN, May 7, 2018, Time.

The “This Is America” video, which has already racked up more than 20 million views on YouTube, reveals provocative imagery of the rapper as he guns down a choir at one point and dances while violence breaks out all around him.
Childish Gambino/Glover‘s decision to wear just a pair of gray pants without a shirt in the video, allows viewers to identify with “his humanness,” as he raps about the violent contradictions that come with being black in America, says Guthrie Ramsey, a professor of music history at the University of Pennsylvania.

“The central message is about guns and violence in America and the fact that we deal with them and consume them as part of entertainment on one hand, and on the other hand, is a part of our national conversation,” Ramsey tells TIME.
“You’re not supposed to feel as if this is the standard fare opulence of the music industry.
It’s about a counter-narrative and it really leaves you with chills.”

Here’s Ramsay’s take on four key moments from “This Is America.”

The first gunshot

The opening moments of “This Is America” show a man strumming a guitar alone to choral sounds.
Within the first minute, Gambino shoots the man, who has been tied up with a head cover.
Childish Gambino hands the gun to another man, who safely wraps it in a red cloth as the obscured man is dragged away.
The moment goes right into the first rapped chorus: “This is America / Don’t catch you slippin’ up.”

Ramsay says the timing — that this happens during the song’s move from choral tones to a trap sound — allows Gambino to straddle contradictions and also allows the viewer to identify with his humanness.

“He’s talking about the contradictions of trying to get money, the idea of being a black man in America,” Ramsey says.
“It comes out of two different sound worlds.
Part of the brilliance of the presentation is that you go from this happy major mode of choral singing that we associate with South African choral singing, and then after the first gunshot it moves right into the trap sound.”

The early moment shows, too, that Gambino “could be anyone,” according to Ramsey.
“You have him almost unadorned, as if he were totally without all the accoutrements of stardom,” he says, noting that Gambino dances in neutral colored pants, dark skin and with textured hair.
“It’s just him, and therefore, it could be us.”

Gambino dancing with schoolchildren amid violence

Gambino and a group of kids clad in school uniforms dance throughout much of the “This Is America” video, smiling through impeccable moves as violence erupts behind them.
The moment could be open to numerous interpretations — for example, Ramsey says, the dancers could be there to distract viewers in the same way black art is used to distract people from real problems plaguing America.
But, Ramsey says, it’s better to absorb the video as a whole because America itself is a country of “very strange juxtapositions.”

“Even though we think of popular culture a a space where we escape, he’s forcing us to understand that there’s actually nowhere to run,” he says.
“We have to deal with the cultural violence that we have created and continue to sustain.”

The style of dancing by Gambino in the video also calls out the way we consume culture.
Gambino samples at least 10 popular dance moves derived from hip hop and African moves, including the South African Gwara Gwara dance, according to Forbes.
Ramsey says the use of so many famous dance moves show how ultra-popular pieces of culture lose their specificity over time as they become more ubiquitous.

“It’s really a commentary on how much violence and contradictions there are in the consuming of pop culture, particularly in the violent elements of it,” he says.
“With all the conspicuous consumption that global capitalism inspires, part of what we are consuming is this appetite for violence.”

The gunned down choir

Toward the middle of the video, a choir sings enthusiastically in a happy tone before Gambino shoots them all.
The massacre and its quickness recall the 2015 Charleston shooting in which white supremacist Dylann Roof killed nine black people in a church basement, Ramsey says.
The image and what it evokes shows how people struggle to reconcile with and separate different instances of violence, according to Ramsey.
As we consume violence on all sorts of platforms, be it in the news, through music videos or television shows, it becomes difficult to absorb very real instances of mass murders.

“You can’t escape the violence,” Ramsey says.
“But you’re being forced to separate how you feel about it in our digitized world.
The virtual violence, the real violence, it’s all confused.”

Gambino running away in the closing moments

The final moments of the video show Gambino running, terrified, down a long dark hallway away from a group of people as Young Thug sings “You just a Black man in this world / You just a barcode, ayy.”
Gambino’s sprint goes back to a long tradition of black Americans having to run to save their lives, according to Ramsey, who says one song dating back to slavery in the 19th century was called “Run N— Run.”

“A black person running for his or her life has just been a part of American culture dating back to slavery,” he says.

Unpacking all the references in Childish Gambino's phenomenal new video

The ‘Jim Crow’ pose, the dance moves, the Statue of Liberty, and what it all means

In the video, we witness a slightly unhinged Gambino tackle the latest dance crazes as children dance and scatter around him in a chaotic parking lot that is no doubt meant to symbolise the nation of America.
During the course of the video, we follow Gambino from space to space as he shoots a masked guitarist, mows down a church choir with a machine gun, and dances hard in between, before lighting up a joint and climbing onto a car for the final scenes.
The video ends chillingly, with Gambino subsequently being chased through the dark.
The final shot shows the fear flicker in his eyes as he strides to outrun the violent mob.

Directed by Glover’s longtime collaborator and Atlanta director Hiro Murai, there is so much to unpack in the visual beyond Gambino’s own erratic and brilliant performance.
Arguably, the focus of the video is to illustrate just how easily we are distracted from the abhorrent truths of our society, when presented with the spectacle of pop culture through dance moves and viral content, just as Gambino’s dance moves distract us from the chaos constantly unfolding behind him.
Here’s a breakdown of some of the most powerful elements of the video.

THE LOVE OF GUNS

The most immediate feature of the video is the gun.
By displaying the violence of the weapon so openly in the first scene, we are thrown into a state of shock from the get go – but the commentary goes further than that.
Every time Childish executes someone with the weapon, a child rushes in to collect the firearm and carefully place it into a cloth before removing it from the scene.
Conversely, when Childish Gambino shoots the first victim, the body is dragged from the scene as he walks on unstirred, while the church choir are left as a pile of bodies in disarray.
Here, the disconnect between the care with which the gun is treated, in direct contrast with the blatant disregard for human life is both jarring and palpable; impossible to look away from.
This is America.

THE ‘JIM CROW’ POSE

It’s also been suggested that the pose Gambino pulls before shooting his first victim, played by artist Calvin the Second, is a reference to Jim Crow, a theatrical racist black stereotype created in the 19th century.
The name was later used as the name for racial segregation laws in the US, before evolving once again into a term to describe the politics of mass incarceration in America by Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow.

Alongside the performative element of the video and the range of dramatic facial expressions pulled by Childish Gambino, he could be seen to embody different stereotypes throughout the video: from the violent aggressor, to the entertainer, to the hunted.

THE CHURCH CHOIR

The inclusion of a choir as the targets of Gambino’s sinister rampage has huge symbolism here.
When we find the choir, they are actually sectioned off in a room removed from the commotion, somewhat innocently providing backing vocals for the track.
Gambino enters the room innocuously and dances along before quickly becoming disinterested and murdering the members within seconds.
As he exits the scene scot-free, crowds from the parking lot rush in the opposite direction and populate the once-quiet room.

The choir here likely makes reference to the particular menace of church shootings, such as those in Charleston and Sutherland Springs, as well as the vulnerable presence of religion within black communities.

THE CONSTANT DISTRACTION

Throughout the video, Childish Gambino and his youthful entourage use dance as a distraction from the brutality unfolding around them.
This can be seen as a reflection of how we live and function in online spaces in 2018.
The forums we use allow two opposing forces – of joy and horror – to coexist, as spectacles of black death and viral memes fill our feeds interchangeably.
As Gambino rattles off the lyrics “hunnid bands, hunnid bands, hunnid bands, contraband, contraband, contraband”, he demonstrates a hip hop trope of drugs, money, and the pursuit of superficial success as a distraction topic from the real oppression and violence taking place on the ground.

While we watch the dancers in the foreground, scenarios of police brutality and rioting play out in the background.
If you blink, you might miss a car on fire or a hooded figure riding across the screen on a white horse – thought to symbolise one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Death.

In true Black Mirror style, as the camera pans between shots, we also catch a glimpse of a few teens recording the events on their phones from a safe distance.
In this way, pop culture content is (and always has been) both a subconscious smoke screen and a conscious coping mechanism for many.

THE DANCING

Choreographed by Sherrie Silver, an African dance teacher and choreographer, the dancing itself has layers to it.
Spanning across continents, Gambino and the children cover moves like ‘Shoot’, made viral by Memphis rapper Blocboy JB’s tune with Drake, ‘Look Alive’, all the way to the ‘Gwara Gwara’ a South African dance move gaining popularity worldwide (and performed by Rihanna at this year’s Grammys).
This choice feels deliberate, giving the commentary global scale.

THE STATUE OF LIBERTY

The new release contains many low-key collaborations with other artists, featuring ad libs and backing vocals from Blocboy JB, Young Thug, 21 Savage, Slim Jxmmi, and Quavo.
Most strikingly, SZA makes a cameo leaning on a car after the chaos seems to have subsided.
On Instagram, she later posted a picture of her from the shoot that suggests she was embodying a Lady Liberty watching on passively.
The visual message is a clear comment on America’s hypocritical, poisonous rhetoric of ‘freedom’, while it abuses and silences the marginalized members of society.

‘This Is America’: Breaking down Childish Gambino’s powerful new music video

While hosting “Saturday Night Live,” Donald Glover dropped a music video for the new single “This Is America” by his rapper alter ego Childish Gambino.
Watch it once, and your eyes will naturally be drawn to his movements and facial expressions.
Watch it again, but focus on the chaos reigning in the background.
Watch it a third time, and the reason for this juxtaposition becomes increasingly clear.

Let’s break it down.

“This Is America” begins with a man seated in a warehouse, playing a guitar.
Many misidentified him as the father of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teenager killed in 2012.
The man is actually Calvin the Second, a Los Angeles-based artist who shared on Instagram that he “got to be a part of history.”

The camera soon finds Glover.
He stands behind Calvin the Second, whose head has been covered with a bag, and shoots him with a gun pulled out of his back pocket.
As several have pointed outon Twitter, his stance while holding the weapon mimics that of the minstrel character Jim Crow, the origin of the term used to describe pre-Civil rights-era segregation laws.

Glover’s erratic dancing, choreographed by Sherrie Silver, distracts from everything happening in the background throughout the video — purposefully so, it would seem.
Paired with exaggerated expressions like the one pictured above, his movements further the connection to minstrel shows, a form of entertainment popularized in the early 1800s that mocked black people in the United States.
The stock characters were usually played by white people in blackface, though some all-black groups performed under white directors.

Glover’s character, who appears to represent how white American culture oppresses black people, periodically kills innocent performers.
As a choir joyfully sings the refrain — “Get your money, black man, get your money” — Glover slips out from behind a door and dances in front of the choir.
He is handed an assault weapon, shoots all 10 singers and walks away.
The imagery evokes the 2015 Charleston church massacre, in which attendees of a prayer service were murdered by self-described white supremacist Dylann Roof.

As Glover tells listeners to “watch me move,” people in the background are chased by cops.
A police car is parked in the viewers’ line of sight, and orange glares suggest fires burning throughout the warehouse.

The camera quickly glides past young people with their phones out as Glover says, “This a celly, that’s a tool.”
Cellphones have been used to record police officers shooting or choking black people in the past few years.

As Glover continues to dance amid the chaos — with another police car parked in view — a hooded figure rides past on a white horse.
Someon Twitter have drawn connections to the Horsemen of the Apocalypse from the New Testament’s Book of Revelation, in which death rides on a pale horse with hell following behind.

Calvin the Second plays his guitar with the bag on his head as Glover climbs atop a parked car.
All the cars pictured — including the one SZA sits on, in a surprise cameo — arefrom the 1980s and 1990s,in contrast with the new, luxury vehicles often depicted in today’s music videos.
Some Twitter users theorized that the cars’ age represents the “stalled socioeconomic and political mobility” of black Americans.
Others pointed to images of vehicles during the 1992 Los Angeles riots, which began after a jury acquitted police officers of using excessive force while arresting (and beating) Rodney King.

The video ends with Glover chased down a dark hallway, and some point to the darkness behind him as a physical representation of the Sunken Place, a mental prison where the Armitage family matriarch sends black people in Jordan Peele’s “Get Out.”
How fitting, then, that “Get Out” actor Daniel Kaluuya presented Glover’s performance of the song on SNL.

Whether this reference was intended, the video makes clear how black people have been trapped and/or harmed by American culture.
Glover’s character keeps the darkness at bay by acting within white-imposed boundaries for most of the video — hence the rich depth of field, with his giddy dancing layered in front of violence — but it eventually catches up with him.

“This Is America” is a painful yet perfectly timed masterpiece, what Glover seems to do best.

(May 21 2018 2:36PM):
Even though I saw the video for the first time I was shocked because of Gambino had shot a guy that was wearing a bag over his head. Plus The overall message of the video is basically talking about all the violence that is happening here in America.

Within the the first minute, Childish Gambino shot a black man with a gun. The gun got carried away in cloth while the body was dragged on the ground. This could mean that black bodies are less important then guns.

(Oct 25 2018 9:23AM):
At the end of "This is America" Donald runs away from people in darkness, which could be symbolizing slavery long ago when black people were running for their lives or to escape for freedom. What are your thoughts?

it goes into detail from the way she shoots the man in the position he was standing in. how the kids dancing in their uniforms is a distraction to whats going on in the video, how us kids now a days are into every dance challenge and were dancing our lives away. the question is when will we wake up from reality it’s like were brain washed.

(Oct 22 2018 9:05AM):
When ive seen this video a day after this came out i took this as a lit video. lets just be real Danny Glover kilt the dance moves in the video,if you say u werent rocking to it the first time your lying.I saw on news stories and sources like that on how
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significant Childish Gambino is explaining the realization of the U.S, such as the devastating issues on police brutality,civil rights, and white privilege.

Childish Gambino explains the devastating issues on police brutality, civil rights and white privilege in many ways throughout the video. The way he did it he you would have to watch the video more than once in order to really get a full understanding.

(Nov 07 2018 9:18AM):
I know you all noticed the black children dancing majority of the video, the dancing children can represent black art used to distract people from the real problems happening in America.

(Oct 25 2018 9:16AM):
This video shows how people care for guns more than people lives. All of this Dancing is a distraction to the real world scenarios. When he does the gun pose it was him doing something that happened in Jim Crow.

(Nov 13 2018 9:24AM):
when childish Gambino said get your money black i think he is trying to say black man are learned to worry about getting money and clothes but they need to know thats not important .I think he is trying to say we need more blackman to stop workin for the
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the reason I agree with this is because I feel like when he sat in the chair and started to play his guitar it looked so powerful , like this is the way most people make it out & provide for their families .

(May 09 2018 5:02PM):
what I see in the video ,Everything starts off calm and happy until someone get shoot and die. Other people came out of nowhere and start to clean up the act. And you hear This is America DON'T CATCH ME SLIPPING. IMMA GO GET THE BAG.
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My thoughts on this video is good because i think it gives you signs to which your back. And when the kids came out to dance was like a sign to say ya you can look good and have a lot of stuff but someone out there is going to still be after what you got cause it’s what they want . Also this is America many people get away with there crimes so always watch yo back cause either way it go if you are trying to live and help yourself there will always be someone watching you in every set you take.
And if you get cost it’s quiet for you because they not going to help you .they are just going to cover it up for there safety and leave you hopeless.
You not going to get what you needed unless to tell someone or snitch on someone an either which way you still going to get messed over if they don’t get what they want you will suffer cause it’s America.
Also to me his line ‘’Grandma told me Get your money, Black men(Black men)’’..he sayings black instead of sitting down and blaming other people take responsblilty of our actions.

But have you ever thought of like Guns might not be to much of the issue it’s just how many people let there emotions BECOMETHEBEST OF THEM and for some people it’s hard to control .And things go out of hand and turn into killing

Where could you better set a video called “This is America” than in a parking lot? We define ourselves by our cars. We are willing to pay rent for them. Our day is cheerful if we find the perfect parking spot. And an empty parking lot is the equivalent of an automobile candy store.

(May 16 2018 4:17PM):
I wanna to know, why when the man walk to the chair he is dressed as if he was in slavery picking cotton .Also he do not have on shoes I really do want to know if this is a sign or a message that he is trying to get out to people to really understand ...
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What people are doing in America and to cover up there act upon other. And when I say act upon other as in how so many police offers are getting away with killing babies, teenagers, n adults. However,Some of these crimes aren’t solve yet and still increasing day by day because people feel like if you not them they really don’t care unless they get what they want and they are good.

(Oct 12 2018 10:21AM):
I like how joyful this song is at the beginning. The empty space with monotone colors emphasize the j oy of the music. Now that I've seen the whole video, this way of beginning sets us up for strong contrasts.

There’s a lot being said here about the black body. CG dances through many types of music (from African to Gospel to contemporary) which allows him to emphasize how his body is moving shirtless. Reminds me of Coates and his argument around how death and abuse of the black body is acceptable because of the white gaze and devaluation of the black body.

Whoa, the music is beautiful and uplifting then this hooded figure awaiting execution emerges. At this moment it feels clear why we are in this oppressive institutional setting as an execution is about to take place. Who? What? Why?

(May 09 2018 4:31PM):
i think this means and represents the death of an african american
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i feel this could be a slave being killed because of the sack he has over his face and skin color but also it shows a representation of how arican americans feel today. I think they still feel enslaved and undermined by white supremacy which is something that shouldnt be happening in the year 2018 everyone should be equal

Jim Crow was the name of the laws set during the time of segregation of whites and blacks (people). As Childish Gambino is in this stance he’s aiming a gun at a colored mans head while wearing what seem to be the pants that confederate soldiers wore. Showing the issue of racism is still at hand in America.

(Oct 17 2018 9:13AM):
He's about to kill the guy that is sitting in the chair with a sack over his head.
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he is impersonating a Jim Crow poster that was created back when segregation in America was at it’s worse. I think that the person sitting in the chair with the sack over his face is supposed to be a slave because at first he was playing the guitar & looked happy but then out of nowhere he is wrapped in a sack and shot in the head. Honestly i feel like the guy with the sack on his head is supposed to symbolize how us blacks feel today with the racism, inequality etc. its like we are still enslaved and this shouldn’t be happening in 2018 Untied States of America.

(Oct 17 2018 9:22AM):
Childish Gambino shot the man playing the guitar in jim crow style.Jim crow was a theater character that was made to make fun of colored people.It was a shocker in the video. And Jim crow was the practice of segregating black people a in the U.S years ago
[Edited]

Jim Crow was just a stage name. In this video, he uses the Jim crow pose to depict the system of racial Apartheid that dominated the American South for three quarters of a century beginning in the 1890s. Jim Crow refers to the repressive laws and customs once used to restrict the rights of people of color.

i completely agree with you because i feel the same way. One reason I agree is because this video does show how society is now and all the problems society is facing especially african americans. another reason is because it shows how african americans feel in america

(Oct 17 2018 9:05AM):
This is my first time watching this video but when i saw Gambino doing that pose i automatically thought of the Jim Crow Law. That pose represented what many slaves well African Americans and people of color went through back in the 1870's.
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Then when i saw him shoot the man with a bag over his head it came to my head that this is what America is really like today.

(May 16 2018 4:50PM):
I wonder if Childish Gambino in with the illuminati or is He trying to give us a sign about the illuminati...
Why would YOU SAY THAT ?..,
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Throughout the video his was giving signs and hints that could be naked to the human eye. He even had a message through his background. But the people where to busy look how he turn up and didn’t realize at the beginning of the video he had the left side of his pants leg over his shoes and the right down …why not both up or both down ..why one up and one down ?.
After Childish Gambino shot the man he said,‘’ This is America Don’t catch you slippin’ up’’ and he did a dance as in if got away with the murder. I wonder is he relating this to the many crimes that many police offers got away with.

Interesting that you believe in this group? Are you or anyone you know a member? How would one come to be a member? Isn’t is more likely that, as with all of the best poetry, he is layering meaning and using ambiguity to allow us to place our own experience onto what we are seeing?

As he shoots the hooded man (hooded so we don’t know his age, his race, his face) it is clear that the human life he takes has no value to him. But the gun is another matter, to be placed carefully in a red cloth and put away for when next it is wanted.

(Oct 12 2018 10:28AM):
The hood makes me think immediately of Guantanamo and torture--linking street violence to police violence to mass murder to governmentally sanctioned violence--we are part of a violent society, through and through.
[Edited]

(Oct 12 2018 10:25AM):
Sudden violence, but still there's strange disjuncts in his gestures and expressions--his whole body communicates confusion, and the strange way we live contradictory lives--joy and violence. Brilliant and powerful.

(May 09 2018 4:32PM):
I think he's trying to show off his body in a certain manner. For example the way he dances the whole video along with the fact that he doesn't have on a shirt the entire duration of the video
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I think this symbolizes some sort of humanity coming from him, and this is important in the context of this video because of all the problems surrounding him in the background which nobody seems to notice but all this chaos is happening and his way of coping with the issue is just dancing

(May 16 2018 4:37PM):
I agree that the way he presents himself throughout the video symbolizes something.
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i think as he switches places in the video whereas one moment he’s representing minorities then hes imitating the privileged has a lot to do with the fact that he looks ungroomed as a stereotypical black man on top and a racist white man on the bottom.

(May 16 2018 4:59PM):
When he repeated don't catch up slippin 'up over and over again and said look what i'm whippin ....
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Is that relating to the gov. like I wanna know is he playing a role of gov. how they make a plan and people see what they are doing and can’t do nothing about it because they got people covering up for them so they can get away with it.

(Oct 17 2018 8:43PM):
Childish Gambino and the kids are dancing in front of all the chaos . I think he is trying to say that we dance around everything and don’t pay attention to what’s happening around us.

This cheerful murderer gathers kids behind him, smiling and happy to be part of the dance. I watch how charismatic people draw fans to them no matter how awful they may be. Make America Great Again, follow me!

(Oct 17 2018 9:14AM):
This is really good because it shows many kids in the back dancing and that's really how some people make it for their families. Dance can really help many different people that's why they come out with many different challenges every other day for kids.

(Oct 22 2018 9:10AM):
The kids are dancing distracting us from the chaos that happening in the back.It show us that we have so many distractions today and forget what is happening in the world.WE dance around everything when people are taking from us as colored people.

(Oct 12 2018 10:21AM):
Yep, this is America, police be trippin' up....
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Black and brown men and women are executed by the police who are a part of the criminal justice system designed to protect all citizens. Black and brown folk seem to be excluded from the citizenry in this here Amerikkka.

Either way it go with or without police things are going to be bad because look what world we live in ,People don’t go by the rules. And by have police around dosen’t make it any better because they think their doing right when it’s really going to make people react more because of the crimes many police officer gotten away with.

(Oct 17 2018 9:19AM):
You see the kids dancing but all of the commotion going on in the background.
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Childish Gambino is trying to show us that there is so much going on in this country & we not even paying attention to it. Everytime there is something big going on in our country we end up getting distracted by something else.

(Oct 19 2018 12:13AM):
He distracts us from what's happening at the background with the dance moves.
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This explains that in the society, we ignore the most pressing issues and concentrate on the less important ones. we are being distracted too easily and don’t focus on the things happening around us; instead we’re more interested in fights between Cardi and Nicki or the new songs travis Scott just released.

(Oct 17 2018 9:40AM):
Gambino shows how american citizens get involved in violent roles in the communities just to go against the oppressive government.
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This part indicates guerrilla tactics that a member of a small independent group takes part in irregular fighting,typically against regular forces. This explains how citizens of America protest on some racial and social justice issues against the government that oppresses people of color.

We have many violent communities in our nation. However, I rarely hear any outrage. For instance, this past weekend (May 14th and 15th) 40 people were shot in Chicago; 5 of them died! And yet, this event was not mentioned on the news this week.

This line always makes me think of Othello- Iago tells Rodrigo:
Put money in thy purse. Follow thou the wars, defeat thy favor with an usurped beard. I say, put money in thy purse. It cannot be long that Desdemona should continue her love to the Moor—put money in thy purse—nor he his to her. It was a violent commencement in her, and thou shalt see an answerable sequestration—put but money in thy purse. These Moors are changeable in their wills—fill thy purse with money. The food that to him now is as luscious as locusts shall be to him shortly as bitter as coloquintida. She must change for youth. When she is sated with his body she will find the errors of her choice. Therefore, put money in thy purse. If thou wilt needs damn thyself, do it a more delicate way than drowning. Make all the money thou canst. If sanctimony and a frail vow betwixt an erring barbarian and supersubtle Venetian be not too hard for my wits and all the tribe of hell, thou shalt enjoy her. Therefore make money. A pox of drowning thyself! ’Tis clean out of the way. Seek thou rather to be hanged in compassing thy joy than to be drowned and go without her.

He goes on to talk about revenge and hatred of Othello so the idea of money takes on many meanings including being prepared to fight, being ready to buy what’s needed (land), and being armed.

(May 09 2018 4:35PM):
the death of an african american choir group
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i think this is to show the deaths of the choir group in real life and how they were murdered by an automatic weapon inside a church. This helps show that anybody and anyone can be shot no matter the place and time which is a very tragic thing happening today in america

Why do we accept this, Adelphe? Is there any way we can stop it? Do other countries have the same worry? Can America back away from this or does our Constitution guarantee that this will go on forever?

(Oct 19 2018 12:24AM):
An all-black Church choir happily singing and worshipping until Gambino shot them all in a matter of seconds.
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This connects to the mass shooting in Charleston Church. where Dylann Roof, a 21 yr old white supremacist murdered nine African-Americans during a prayer service. Moreover, you notice how the gun is being handled with special care while the bodies just lie there.

(May 16 2018 4:49PM):
He's worried about his own well being.
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In this clip as the lyrics “Won’t catch you slipping up” plays; Gambino shoots an entire choir then carefully hands the gun off. Out of this I’m gathering that as long as you handle the weapon correctly and fled the scene you can get away with murder no matter how many you killed or where you killed.

(May 14 2018 3:44PM):
i think this shows how much america feels about guns and black people
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i think this is to show how much america cares more about guns than all african americans in the united states all due to the fact that the united states is currently more concerned about keeping the second amendment as it is instead of how all the african americans are being treated and shot everyday because of hate crimes

(May 16 2018 4:56PM):
People blindly pick and choose which part(s) of the African American culture they want to partake.
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While Gambino and a group of people of color are performing culture born dances in the middle of the screen, there is a ton of chaos in the background that doesn’t catch the eye immediately because the dancing is more pleasureful.

(Oct 19 2018 12:31AM):
As i said earlier, we don't really concentrate on the important things happening around us. The students are using their phones to record the things happening around them, instead of trying to find ways to resolve the issues.
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This is what happens in the society today, when you see two teenagers fighting, then other teenagers gather around to record the fight so they could post it on facebook and their other social media platforms; instead of them trying to break up the fight.

Seeing this man on a horse makes me think of a few things like when slave masters rode through fields full of slaves to oversee them or when white men rode through african american villages on horses and set their houses on fire.

i think this shows the death of someone and how easy it would be to kill someone . it also gives insight on how people are being treated in america as well as how easy it is to get a gun in your possession

(May 09 2018 4:38PM):
childish gambino is running away from a group of people
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i think this is to show how the black man in get out was doing the same thing because he was running away from the white people trying to enslave him. This reminds me of the movie get out which i think hes trying to reference by doing the same thing a black man did in fear for his life did by running away because of the fear of getting enslaved

Gambino is being chased by white people, i feel like he’is trying to symbolize that white people are simply targeting black folks. I also think he got this idea from the movie ¨Get out¨when the guy was running from who knows what.

(May 14 2018 4:15PM):
What I see on this video is Gambino running away from people.
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this is significant because Gambino was trying to show how society is discriminating people because of their color and something interesting thats i notice was that he use a peace from the movie “get out” when the men was running..

(Oct 17 2018 9:25AM):
Even though he acted all tough and all, at the end he still ran from white people.
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Even though the Black person in this video acted all tough and all in the beginning, middle at the end he still ran from white people. This comes to show that no matter how tough black people are, at the end they will always have fear of the white community.

(May 21 2018 3:44PM):
Why did Childish Gambino was running from the white people like that in his song ''This is America''?
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I wonder do his song at the end relate to slavery how black people use to run from there white salve owners just to get away to be free .They ran to the underground railroad to be free and to help other slave’s escape.

Childish Gambino says “we just wanna party”. Children always wanna party and they remain completely oblivious to the current events that is happening in the world. We are to preoccupied with social media and many other things.

(May 30 2018 2:34PM):
In this part of the video it shows the instrument that the guy is playing which during the Civil Rights black people have been playing the same instrument. Also its one of the symbols that have a history.

(Jun 11 2018 10:29PM):
You can be one person describe as many people in this world. Just like how peace turns into voilence.
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it’s important for many people to know that just because somebody can commit to a crime that you didn’t do but they did with your idenity can get away with it because that person don’t want to do the time for something they commit.